Los Angeles Music Blog

​As if Harper Simon didn't have big enough shoes to fill, the songwriter will open for mad-genius Brian Wilson on December 6th as part of Walt Disney Concert Hall's series, "West Coast Left Coast."

Luckily the Paul Simon's oldest son has backup from a band made up of some might fine musicians: Money Mark, Farmer Dave Scher, The Chapin Sisters, bass player Erik Paparazzi (Cat Power), drummer Russell Simins (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), and guitarist Mike Bloom (The Elected). Kicks off his West Coast tour with this special performance, and will return to L.A.'s Bootleg theater on December 18th, for a more intimate show.

No word as to whether Simon will play his country-tinged sing-alongs with Mr. Wilson, or with fellow openers, The Living Sisters (made up of Harper's friends Inara George, Becky Stark, and Eleni Mandell), but with that many talents in one room, the collaboration is in the air.

(Media from Simon and his back up band members after the jump)

Sweden's greatest export -- other than particle board furniture -- is music. Dancey disco, mathematically precise metal, and dreamy indie pop, they've got it all. But at Saturday's Peter, Bjorn, & John performance at Club Nokia, Sweden may have shown one of their lesser known exports: one hit wonders.

Drew Tewksbury

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Peter, Bjorn & John don't exactly fall into that camp -- yet -- but if they aren't careful, they could become victim to the Rapture syndrome, in which a great band gets buried by one fantastic song (remember "House of Jealous Lovers"?).

Local independent label Manimal Vinyl has just announced its signing of Sacramento-based quartet Sister Crayon. The band makes gorgeous, ghostly tunes that blur the line between lo-fi electronics (drum machines, synths) and rich analog atmospherics (organ tones, human voice). The group's debut single is variably listed as the dubby CocoRosie-esque "(In) Reverse" or haunting, classy number "Here We Never Die," but either way, Manimal promises something will be officially released "before 2009 is over." And in any case, both tracks are currently streaming on the group's MySpace page.

Sister Crayon has got the Virgin's back.

​The band will be performing in L.A. soon, on December 21, as part of the label's December residency at The Echo. A whole gaggle of radical Manimal bands (and friends like Tearist and Moonrats) will be performing. You'll find the lineups, plus the NSFW flyers after the jump. Those come after this just-released nearly NSFW video for Warpaint's "Stars." We covered the trio's most recent Manimal release in our INCHES record review column, here.

View more photos in the Raphael Saadiq slideshow.

Timothy Norris

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The band is a machine. The seven-piece outfit, clad in matching black suits, powers on as the horn section chimes in while the drummer fuels the engine of this funky thing. The backup singers high-step to the music, locked in unison, then comes the heart-throb, the front man, beyond dapper in red suit and Buddy Holly glasses, crooning doo-waps and yeah-yeahs to the crowds of swooning girls. But this is not the Motown era. There were no poodle skirts or pony tails. It was Friday night at the Wiltern Theater, 2009, and this is the world according to Raphael Saadiq.

[Tonight is the opening of the L.A. Philharmonic's West Coast, Left Coast events that run through December 8. Rounding up our series of exclusive interviews with musicians who will be playing at WCLC (see also our chats with Terry Riley and Matmos), here's the LA Weekly's John Payne talking to David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet and Mike Einziger from Incubus.]

David Harrington

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Mike Einziger

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A. J. Farkas

Matmos

​Matmos is taking part in the LA Phil's West Coast, Left Coast events at Disney Hall on November 21, alongside and in collaboration with Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet; Incubus guitarist/composer Mike Einziger also premieres a piece that night. We gabbed on the phone with Matmos' Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt to get the lowdown on this thing called a West Coast sound...

Drew Daniel: I'm always very reluctant to sum up California, because when you do that there's gonna be aspects of it that you're gonna leave out of the narrative. And if you invoke something like the Frontier, it's kind of cliché at this point. Yet I still remember when I was making decision, Where do I want to go to college? Do I want to go to Ohio or California? Little closeted me associated California with freedom and independence, and San Francisco in particular with experimentation. It's because in the sequence from the '50s to the '60s to the '70s there was always a radical set of communities in literature, in music, in sexuality, that was based here.

M.C. Schmidt: There.

Drew: Yeah, sorry, I should say there, because now I live in Maryland. Martin was born in California, so I think he comes by it more honestly.

LA Weekly: Is there anything characteristically Californian about your attitude toward making music and the way you work?

Legendary composer-performer Terry Riley is the creator of such groundbreaking "Minimalist" works as In C, A Rainbow In Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and, with the Kronos Quartet, decidedly un-Minimalist works as Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances for Peace.

He'll perform solo and in collaboration with Kronos and Matmos at the November 21 opening night of the L.A. Philharmonic's West Coast, Left Coast events that run through December 8. Riley talks here about the origins of his music, where it's going and what he expects to find there...

​L.A. WEEKLY: Given the theme of the "Left Coast" events at Disney Hall -- that there is something about West Coast composers that might indicate a different way of thinking about music and art -- how do you see yourself fitting into that?

TERRY RILEY: I guess I fit in as well as anybody. I was born up in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where I live now. I've lived all my life in California, and worked here, and whenever I go anywhere and do anything, that's what I'm known as. I don't think there's a stylistic link between all the people who live on the West Coast, but I think what this festival does is put everybody out there and let the audience decide themselves if there's any common thread going through it all.

Liz Ohanesian

​In the Adult Swim series Metalocalypse, which recently began its third season by moving from a fifteen-minute spot to a half-hour one, Dethklok is so huge that they've spawned an economy larger than that of most countries, so famous that fans will do anything for them. While the live Dethklok, fronted by show creator Brendon Small, isn't quite so massive (nor does it's music drive fans to an epic demise), there's no denying that this band is adored. When WCS's Gustavo Turner spotted the line for last night's sold-out Palladium show early yesterday afternoon, we were impressed by the devotion.

Local dreamy disco haze-maker Nite Jewel only just wrapped up a European tour, and she's making headlines again back home. Tonight, Ramona Gonzales (who's lately been performing with a duo backing her) is doing a free live set at Hyperion Tavern's weekly Calling All Kids night. She's rumored to hit the stage between 11:30 and midnight, but the evening is solidly stacked so consider coming earlier for DJ sets by Dublab's leading men Frosty and Ale. That's "ah-lay," but you will find frosty ale there as well, nyuk nyuk.

Here's a preview, followed by an MP3 from Nite Jewel's new tour disc, You F O and some surprising news (plus, another MP3, and a flyer for the show).

Nite Jewel - "We Want Our Things" (MP3)

We've seen the future of rock'n'roll, and it is a fictional metal band.

This picture below is the line at 3:35pm in front of the Hollywood Palladium for the double bill of Mastodon (a real metal band) and Dethklok (a fictional metal band from the Adult Swim Metalocalypse cartoon).

When the fans were asked who they were lining up this early to see, they unanimously replied,

"DETHKLOK!!!!!"

Gustavo Turner

End of Days Alert: These metal fans are braving the California cold for hours to see a cartoon band

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Another view of the line:

​The Mint, the legendary night club and undisputed home of the more melodic side of hip LA music, is hosting Brazil-by-way-of-NYC band Forro in the Dark tonight. Forro (or, to be more precise, forró) as the band explains, is "the hip-swiveling, dancefloor-filling, rural party music of Brazil's northeastern states." Fresh from a stint as Thom York's sideman, percussionist and FitD leader Mauro Rofosco will surely be changing gears for the Mint gig. "In Brazil, forró literally means party," says Rofosco. "It's a gathering, a good time. The objective is to make people dance."

To celebrate their appearance, the band has given us their infectious track "Caipirinha" (which will make you as giddy as its namesake drink) to share with you. This is an EXCLUSIVE MP3 for West Coast Sound readers:

​Didn't manage to make wrangle tickets for either the Dâm-Funk extravaganza at The Echo or Sarah Silverman's big night at Largo? Fear not. You can head-nod to thick grooves and laugh your ass off at the same time tonight at Crane's Hollywood Tavern, and it'll cost you all of zip. This is actually the second installment of 24/33, a monthly film and music night curated by Anticon Records co-founder Pedestrian and Restiform Bodies/Furious Stylz producer Telephone Jim Jesus, but tonight's event steps things up considerably.

Not only will TJJ and DJ Sodapop (Anticon manager Shaun Koplow) be spinning hits and unreleased works from the label's boundary-pushing 10 years, but several screenings are taking place, along with a live comedy performance. Among the shorts being shown: Blond Chili's hilarious "Namaste" web series promoting the just-out WHY? record, Eskimo Snow (with an on-screen appearance by Sunny In Philadelphia's Dennis); the bizarro "NOTgarfield" animated series by Subtle/Themselves' Doseone (who's rumored to be developing a show for Adult Swim); and the recent string of rabble-rousing PSAs put together for the release of Sole & The Skyrider Band's Plastique.

What's more, Andre Hyland (Blond Chili) and his frequent collaborator Mike Mayfield will be taking to the stage for what's sure to be a unique blend of mayhem and hilarity.

THREE COMEDY SHORTS AND THREE MP3S AFTER THE JUMP...

Erin Broadley

Slash... not on a jet to Vegas

​There's an old photograph in Slash's autobiography of him and actor Charlie Sheen on a private jet, where they're probably headed to Las Vegas. Sheen wears the guitar legend's signature black top hat and mugs for the camera, while Slash, Heineken in hand, dons sunglasses and a silver vial necklace described in the caption as the one he used to keep "loaded with coke." But those days are long gone, and as comedian George Lopez joked on Monday alongside his "Lopez Tonight" talk show guests Slash and Sheen, there comes a point in a man's life when the party ends, the commitment to family begins, and playmates get replaced with your children's play dates.

Slash laughs as we begin our interview the morning after Lopez's show: "What's funny was I took my kids over to Charlie's house... he's got two daughters and I have two boys... so we've never been invited back. My kids are just so crazy. Girls are mellow, you know? They're very cool, quiet and collected. But boys are like fuckin' little mini Tarzans. They just run all over the place and scared the shit out of [the girls]. So anyways, so much for play dates with Charlie."

At this point we're both laughing, but playmates versus play dates aside, the real reason L.A. Weekly got Slash on the phone was to discuss his involvement with the Los Angeles Youth Network and the LAYN Rocks benefit concert happening this Sunday, November 22 at Avalon in Hollywood. As previously announced, the "Slash & Friends" charity event will be hosted by the aforementioned Lopez and feature performances by Ozzy Osbourne, Perry Farrell, Billy Idol, Travis Barker, Chester Bennington, Andrew Stockdale, Dave Navarro, Tom Morello and some surprise guests. Well, according to our conversation with Slash, one of those surprise guests will be none other than original Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler.

Read the interview below for more about the concert, LAYN's efforts to help homeless youth, and Slash's own experiences with life on the streets.

​The Scenestar confirms what we had been hearing about all day: King Khan & BBQ have canceled their LA show tonight at the Troubadour and are heading straight for SF.

They are alleging "transportation problems," but we're hearing more colorful versions regarding the last-minute cancelation, which we'll report as soon as we can confirm them.

Dim Mak + Golden Voice are trying to build-up their mailing lists be nice to you and help you score Julian Casablancas tix:

Dim Mak + Golden Voice set you up!

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​The We the People Festival originally slated for Nov. 21st has been postponed until early next year. L.A's "Socially Responsible Festival" featuring Bad Religion, Daedelus, Suicidal Tendencies, and many more was apparently moved due to economic concerns.

From the Festival:
"As organizers, we are committed to presenting only the finest event possible for this important movement. Due to ongoing economic challenges, we decided our best option was to move the event to a later date to insure these standards are maintained for the benefit of our important, loyal audience."

Refunds are available for those who have already purchased tickets via their point of purchase.

But don't get too sad, we have some media from some of the participating artists after the jump. It's just as good as the real thing, right?

Them Crooked Vultures, the LA-based Homme-Grohl-Jones supertrio (aka Queens of the Nirvana Zep) , has just announced the following secret show tonight:

THEM CROOKED VULTURES
SURPRISE EVE OF RELEASE SHOW AT THE ROXY

Them Crooked Vultures will play a special one time only club show at the Roxy Monday, November 16, the day before the band's self titled debut is released.

Tickets will be available exclusively in-person at the venue on show day. No lineups prior to 2pm. Ticket holders will be required to enter immediately after purchase. No ins and outs. Tickets are non- transferable

The show will be open to all ages. Box office and doors open at 8:30. Them Crooked Vultures on stage at 10:30.

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Last night, monthly minimal synth and coldwave party Killing Spree got Wierd when DJ Pieter Schoolwerth and members of Xeno and Oaklander, Martial Canterel and Blacklist arrived to kickoff this weekend's Wierd Festival. Organized and promoted by Schoolwerth and Killing Spree promoter/DJ Sarah Cake, the event will mix up bands from the New York City-based label with its West Coast kin.

Liz Ohanesian

Pieter Schoolwerth and Sarah Cake

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The music of Bogota's Bomba Estereo connects dancefloors across the world. Every Bomba Estereo song charts an intercontinental flight from the frenzied electro of Spain, to the downbeat dub of Kingston, back to cumbia from their home in Colombia. Bomba Estereo packs it all in and ties it up with lead vocalist Liliana Saumet's hybridized style that travels from folk songs to rap and back again.

Hot off their incendiary performance on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, yesterday (video after the jump), the group sashays into the Echo tonight for their L.A. debut. It will probably sell out, so get tickets here.

On Monday, they stop by Amoeba for an in-store performance at 7 p.m., if you have moths in your wallet.

Why travel at all when Bomba Estereo brings the world to your dancefloor?

(Bomba Estereo MP3 and KCRW performance after the jump)

The Who at the Super Bowl: YEAHHHHHHH!

​Billboard reports that The Who--a UK duo comprising singer Roger Daltrey and half-deaf guitarist Pete Townshend who are perhaps best known for soundtracking very popular American crime-lab procedural TV programs--will be the half-time performers at the 2010 Super Bowl.

(Endless example of The Who's best work, after the jump.)

Ralph Lawson is a British mainstay in the DJ world, a spinner known for his refined house music that contains a touch of electronic progressivism. In the mid-1990s he held down the Back To Basics club night in Leeds that helped inspire his 2020Vision record label and put him on the international spin circuit.

2020Soundsystem: Ready to mug your ears!

​But today he's even more well-know for being the leader of a band, 2020Soundsysyem, that incorporates improvisation and musicianship while retaining the steady stomp of the DJ booth. The four-piece group includes Lawson on laptop, Dubble D on electronic drums, and Fernando Pulichino and Julian Sanza on various instruments including bass and keyboards.

2020Soundystem performs at an underground warehouse party in the Los Angeles area Friday. Info: 1-877-865-9788; losangeles.going.com.

(EXCLUSIVE interview with 2020Soundsystem's Ralph Lawson and FREE mp3 download, after the jump)

Gibson.com

​Tonight, at the House of Blues, current great white hope Joe Bonamassa will be on hand to perform and mentor the five finalists of King of the Blues, Guitar Center's version of American Idol for fledgling axemen. Roosevelt Collier (Kissimmee, FL), Joshua Gooch (San Diego, CA), Kirby Kelley (N. Dallas, TX), Dan Peters (Morton Grove, IL) and Graham Whitford (NYC) will be given the Sunset Strip star treatment for one night, as they compete for the music retailers' shredder crown (and 25 grand, which come in handy when your baby done left you).

​Do we have a treat for you this morning! When we first received the new Ray Davies record here at our swanky Culver City offices, we loved the new version of "Celluloid Heroes" so much that we just had to ask our friends at Decca Records if we could give it to our readers for FREE as a legal download for a week to coincide with Ray's Saturday show at the Orpheum.

We've always thought that "Celluloid Heroes" (originally on The Kinks' 1972 album Everybody's In Showbiz) is one of the greatest Los Angeles songs every written, and we encourage you to download this fantastic new version, put it on your iPod, and go for a leisurely stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. We dare you not to smile, be moved, and fall in love all over again with the subtle genius of Ray Davies.

LAWeeklyEXCLUSIVECelluloidHeroes.mp3 (EXCLUSIVELY available to WCS readers 11/12/09 - 11/19/09, courtesy of Ray Davies and Decca Label Group)

The recording is one of many outstanding tracks on Ray's just-released album, The Kinks Choral Collection, a reimagination of hits and cult cuts (including a mini Village Green suite, yeah!) where the head Kinkster is backed by London's Crouch End Festival Chorus.

Ray Davies is playing Saturday night at the Orpheum, 842 S. Broadway. Go tell him thanks for his gift of music, EXCLUSIVE to WCS readers!

(The poignant lyrics to LA classic "Celluloid Heroes," after the jump)

​What's in a name? For a band, everything.

Whether a band has an incredibly fitting name (Lair of the Minotaur--so metal!), or a terrible moniker, (We Were Promised Jetpacks: great band, awful name), bands' names are brand names. So when a band drops a nice fat F-bomb in their name, you have to respect them a little bit.

The F word can be both a blessing and a curse, though. On one hand, it represents a band's iconoclastic nature, and gives off a damn-the-man vibe. But on the other hand, it obliterates any chance of going big. Starfucker and Vagenius know all too well the pains of having great but NC-17 names. Fuck Buttons, however, have become relatively notable (Pitchfork wants to have their babies) despite having a name that would be embarrassing to discuss with your grandmother. The duo will psyche-out the Echo tonight, supporting their newest album, Tarot Sport, but they aren't the first to F-up their band's name.

In honor of these intrepid mofos, we present to you some of the finest effing bands in the universe.

Safe Search off!

(F*cking media after the f*cking jump. "F*ck those!," you say? Give us your f*cking suggestions in the goddam comments!)

​Aesop Rock producer and instrumental hip hopper Blockhead pays a visit to the Echo with Ninjatune Records labelmate, Yppah tonight.

Blockhead rolls into town following the digital release of his latest album, The Music Scene, last week, which features the familiar laid-back vinyl pastiche that earned him a prime spot on indie hip hop label Def Jux in the late 1990's. Blockhead will be joined by big beat, shoe-gaze artist Yppah, aka Joe Corrales Jr. and his touring band, whose psychedelic sound conjurs a live DJ Shadow vibe.

Enjoy the chance to tune in and get down.

(Media after the jump)

Here at West Coast Sound, we pride ourselves on delivering the finest breaking bands, underground artists, and outliers of music and culture directly to your generalized face region everyday. From secret Flaming Lips shows to circuit-bending freaks, we serve up only the most innovative, cutting edge material from across L.A. and the globe. But every now and again, to hone our sharply attuned discernment skills, we must experience the opposite side of the spectrum: the mainstream.

Like William S. Burrows said, "to understand the edge, one must first explore the center."* Last night, this West Coast Sound correspondent confidently marched into L.A. Live, passing the ESPN Sports thing, the replica Trader Vics, and scores of percolating fan-girls, and entered the Deep Space 9 -themed Nokia Center for a performance of So You Think You Can Dance Live.**

After more than two hours of backflips, bouncy co-eds throwing to pre-taped clips/piano scored slo-mo montages,*** and suggestions to "make some noise," we complied a list of five lessons learned from SYTYCDL.

​The Pablove Across America Benefit Concert on November 21st at the Avalon has been expanded to include Band of Horses and Sea Wolf. The additions make the already strong line up a bit stronger, featuring Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Shirley Manson, and Tom Morello in acoustic and semi-acoustic sets.

The night is intended to welcome the return of Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz from a cross country bike trek to raise awareness for the Pablove Foundation, which focuses on child life programs and children's cancer research and treatment. Castelaz lost his 6-year old son, Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz, in June after a 13-month battle with cancer. All proceeds from the show go to the Foundation.

(Ticket info, interviews with Jeff after the Jump)

Eyehategod at Murderfest 2009. Video by JxWxCx

LA metal blog City of Devils has a new interview with Daniel Dismal of Church of the 8th Day, who in addition to promoting a large amount of metal shows in the area, puts together mega-event Murderfest. In the interview, Dismal discusses the effect of a lousy economy on show promotion and how the team plans to move forward after the demise of its primary home, The Knitting Factory. Read it here.

View more photos in Colin Young-Wolff's "The Crystal Method Secret Show @ Echoplex" slideshow.

Colin Young-Wolff

​If electronic dance music ever gets its own This Is Spinal Tap-like parody, The Crystal Method would have to be the film's hard-partying, amplifier-past-10 inspiration. Not that there's anything wrong with that: Since the mid-1990s Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland have been injecting dance music with a rockist sense of urgency. It's just that TCM is a stadium band for the 21st century, sans the British accents, but definitely with the rock-star appetites.

Last year chanteuse Inara George released An Invitation, her lush collaboration with legendary arranger, lyricist, composer and singer Van Dyke Parks. After the largely positive--though slightly muted--reaction to that collection, Inara went back to the drawing board and has just issued a digital solo collection of related sketches and reinventions.

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Inara (who's also known as the fairer half of neo-twee duo The Bird and The Bee) will be showcasing Accidental Experimental, her kinda-DIY companion piece to An Invitation, next Tuesday at the Bootleg Theatre.

(FREE MP3 and show info, after the jump)